Thank you for your trust and commitment in joining our collective endeavour towards a more socially just education system. Our goal is to create an alternative voice on multilingualism and literacy education. However we could not have envisioned all that the bua-lit members and the combined energy of the affiliates have achieved this year! Below we share with you a review of 2019 and some of these activities.
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We launched a blog which allows us to represent and make visible work, research and activism on language rights, multilingualism and more (If you would like to write a blog piece, please get in touch)
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We shared our position paper ‘How are we failing our children?’ widely
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We authored a 3-part article in the Daily Maverick following the release of the 2018 Matric results
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We wrote an open letter to President Ramaphosa and Minister Motshekga following his state of the nation address (printed in the Sunday Times, Daily Maverick & I’solezwe ) which many of you signed
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Some of our members wrote an open letter to uMongameli as part of the African Language Educators Forum which many of you signed
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We wrote a piece on what counts as evidence in literacy teaching for The Conversation
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We completed many radio and TV interviews about multilingual education and our vision for rich literacies in South African schooling
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We inserted our voice and critique into the discussions of the National Framework for Reading in African Languages; the PrimTed standards for Language and Literacy teacher education and Western Cape Education Department’s Reading Strategy documents
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In response to our input on the National Framework for Reading in African Languages, bua-lit members were invited to join the writing team; Xolisa Guzula and Brian Ramadiro played this role; we also enabled changes to the PrimTed standards.
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We hosted a panel on ‘What are our children reading?’ at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town
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We presented a colloquium, papers and workshops at the LITASA conference.
…and much more!
Our efforts are gaining traction. We have reaffirmed our core identity as an advocacy group and in 2020 will continue to engage government and other powerful stakeholders to review and reconsider their failing policies. Of course there is considerably more work to do in realising our dream where the knowledge and experiences of the African language speaking child are taken as the starting point in education, and for all children to be given the opportunities to engage in rich literacies. We will continue to advocate and participate in the research and policy work that is so crucial to realising our dream of an education system that takes multilingualism and rich literacies seriously.
Re a leboga. Bua!
bua-lit collective
(Soraya Abdulatief, Xolisa Guzula, Catherine Kell, Glynis Lloyd, Pinky Makoe, Athambile Masola, Carolyn McKinney, Babalwayashe Molate, Robyn Tyler)
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